Rewind - Story Collection

[Epiphany]

Mundality - March / April Vignette 204 entry - Nothing to Do

 

[Epiphany]

Average Mornings

 

Tick. Tock. Tick Tock. 

Thirty-four steps to the elevators. 

Tick. Tock. Tick Tock.

Despite the steady routine of an average work day, elevators were maddeningly, delightfully unpredictable. Today, they opened after seventeen seconds of waiting. Naisha glanced at her smartwatch, unnecessarily checking the time to recalculate her expected time of arrival. And instead, she found a text message she hadn't noticed.

Hey, can you bring in bagels?

Naisha blinked at the unexpected request, then narrowed her eyes as she considered the source. William Jeffries, one of her colleagues at Atom, Inc. He headed up some independent research in Lab 27 on studying cosmic radiation as a potential wireless power grid. Interesting application and promising research. But the man was...ugh. 

Her elevator stopped suddenly. Ugh. Another tenant, understandably wanting to use the same elevator, but adding another twenty-seven seconds of delay. Not that it was a bad thing. Naisha smiled suddenly, and quick eye contact with the blonde getting in made it easy to disguise as a friendly gesture. 

"Hi there," the rather attractive woman said. "Are you new? I don't think I've seen you around."

"Oh, I suppose a little new," Naisha said, seeing no use in mentioning she'd lived in this building for seven years now. "You?"

"Just a few months," the blonde admitted. Her body language seemed diagnostic. So Naisha switched gears mentally, her mind like a container vessel and sometimes as slow to maneuver as she stopped thinking about the thirty seven experimental tests she'd hoped to do today and instead started thinking about what she'd learned about human behavior in the loop. 

Yes, the young woman's posture, positioning, skin response, eye contact and facial expressions all joined together in a consistent image that Naisha had seen a million times before. The blonde was new and was hoping to make friends. No obvious tells that she was an actor, either. 

"In Freedom City or just here in Midtown?" Naisha asked, clarifying.  

"Freedom City," the blonde said, again her tone of voice making it sound more like an admission than a simple statement. 

"Big change," Naisha said, keeping her tone conversational as she noticed her phone vibrate with another text message.  

Whoops, wrong contact, sorry!

"Bad news?"

Naisha glanced up and realized she'd displayed her irritation at the newest message reflexively. "Sort of. I mean...kind of the opposite?" She chuckled self-consciously as the doors opened in the lobby. "A coworker just randomly texted me to get bagels, then followed up by saying he hadn't meant to text me."

"Oh, that...happens, doesn't it?" the blonde said, looking a bit confused. "That's the opposite of bad news?"

Naisha shrugged her shoulders. "For better or worse, I'm a bit of a creature of habit. I make routines that I have to go out of my way to break. The thing is, I don't like routines. I like surprises. I just...have to remind myself that I do."

The other woman stared.  

"Is that weird? Maybe that sounds weird." Naisha chuckled again, actually feeling self-conscious now instead of just putting on the act for the sake of reflexively manipulating the social encounter. 

"I like surprises too. I'm May, by the way. May Winters."

"Naisha Sidhu." Both of them straightened the way their purses lay on their shoulders, at the same time, in almost exactly the same way. Social mirroring, to build intimacy? Or just a coincidence? "Well, I hope to see you around, May Winters. If nothing else, I can show you where to get the best coffee in Freedom City."

"I'd like that!"

As Naisha left the conversation behind, heading out the lobby doors to begin her walk to the Goodman building, she shook her head at herself. A meetcute. What were the odds. 

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Her mind subconsciously tracked and calculated how long it took for her to leave the building, and refined estimates on how long it'd take for her to reach work and then her lab. But all the while, Naisha found herself smiling. A work day, like any other. But the random elements were delightful chaos, text messages and attractive blondes not part of her daily experience. 

What a strange world this Earth could be.